A representative example of an apparatus of the above-described type is disclosed in German Patent Publication DE 39 27 142 A1, the intent of which is for the contact pressure between a bobbin held by the creel and a contact roller frictionally driving the bobbin to be controlled so that the bobbin can be lifted from the driving roller, as needed, in order to obtain a contact pressure that is adapted to the bobbin makeup and to effect a damping of vibration of the creel. In the known design, a toothed belt drive acts as the transmission device and is joined to the creel via a rod linkage. Practical experiments with this kind of device and with toothed-wheel gears have not led to a version suitable in practice, especially if functions such as the detection of the bobbin diameter and/or damping of bobbin vibration are to be achieved. For those purposes and especially for vibration damping, reactions by the torque generating means were not sufficiently fast and exact to provide commercially acceptable results.